“peers” for whom intrigue was simply out of the question. Even when the occasion had called for it, she hadn’t spend much time socially in Court circles, she spent her social time among Heralds. Or at least, she had until she’d become Queen.
But there should have been one creature above all who would have—or should have— realized what was happening before this. And even if she hadn’t been able to stop it, she should have been able to warn the rest of them!
:Kantor,: he called.
:I follow you,: his Companion replied. :I hope you don’t mind; you jarred me awake and I just followed your thought.:
Once he would have been angry; not now. Now, in fact, he was grateful. Kantor had become the perfect partner, in a way; the shield-brother, the man you could depend on to fall in at your side and match you, move for move.
:That’s the way it’s supposed to work.:
Well, he could see that. Clearly, it didn’t always.
:You’re thinking Selenay and Caryo.: There was a moment of hesitation. :You can’t understand why Caryo didn’t nip this in the bud, especially since she doesn’t much like Prince Karath. And why she didn’t realize how far things had gotten.:
:Exactly,: Alberich replied.
:You and I are—exceedingly compatible now. We are about the same age, with similar experience. Selenay and Caryo—aren’t. I mean, they’re compatible, but their experiences are vastly different.:
Alberich blinked in surprise. That hadn’t occurred to him as a possibility.
:Think of Caryo as a maiden aunt, or a virginal, scholarly sister who is much, much older than Selenay. She’s—well, to be honest, she’s rather sexless. Kindhearted and stalwart, protective absolutely, ready to comfort when Selenay is hurt or angry, but as thick as two short planks when it comes to romance and especially sex.:
Oh. . . . This was beginning to make him feel a little ill.
:Caryo is the sort of person whose shoulder you cry on when your father dies, the wise and clever person you could ask for help with political and administrative problems. Not the person you go to when you’re mooncalfing over a boy. And as for sexual attraction—you’d be horribly embarrassed even to hint that you had such a thing to her, because she would be horribly embarrassed if you brought it up.:
Now, suddenly, it all made sense. Terrible sense.
At least, insofar as he understood young women, and insofar as Caryo being in the dark about all this right along with everyone else. :Dear God. . . : he replied, aghast. :We’ve all been blindsided.:
:Our own damned fault,: Kantor agreed. :We, the Companions, should have known. We know Caryo better than anyone but Selenay—and she was exactly the right Companion for a girl who was bound and determined not to think too hard about anything that wasn’t involved in being the Heir and a Herald. If Sendar was still alive—:
:If Sendar was alive, he’d have sent the boy packing, after making him look ridiculous and unpalatable in Selenay’s eyes first. That’s the only way to handle such things.: Alberich was at least on surer ground there; as an officer, he’d had to break up many an ill-timed romance.
:But with Selenay alone, we didn’t think about how Caryo should change, and you Heralds didn’t think that Selenay would find herself looking for something outside of her duties.:
:We were fools,: Alberich said flatly. :She was clearly drowning in duty and we thought a festival or two would be enough.:
:Blind-sided. And there is only one way to deal with it, and that is to go along with it, just as Talamir said last night. Yes, even if it turns out that this Rethwellan princeling is a rounder and a cad who has been studying how to seduce our Queen.:
The very thought made him angry, made him want to get hold of the blackguard and beat him with the flat of his sword—but Kantor was right. And Talamir was right. Hadn’t he just been watching plays all this winter and spring that proved that very point? The best way to get a young woman set on a particular young man, and vice versa, was to oppose the match. The only way to separate her from someone who was not good for her was to be reserved on the subject of the young man, while being supportive of her. Then, when things began to go wrong, and only then, did you make it clear that you
